Express Irony

Gorra a letter 10 days ago from An Post . . . so meta for the Post Office to be sending its own post. And not without irony also, because it has been sent Express but is their response to a query / complaint about a parcel which I sent in September last year! My beef was about paying a premium to send a package of Bob's Famous Flapjacks to Gdau.I when she was feeling under the weather in England. The choice was €12.50 for "Standard Post 2 -3 working days Convenient service for non urgent post" or €19.00 for "Express Post 2 days Tracking Fastest delivery option Delivery confirmation". Of course, we wanted to get cookies to the poor wee petal ASAP, so naturally we ante-upped the premium.

Well, damned if it didn't take nine [9!] days, seven of them working days, to get there. At least they did arrive, though. My Boston correspondent P sent me a book in 2020 and it is still in limbo [maybe dropped behind a counter in a warehouse at Logan Airport, maybe going the rounds in Iran] . The USPS service swore that it had been delivered to Ireland, AnPost denied they had received it. There is no way to resolve this without lawyering up.

But really . . . corporations can't charge a premium and then not meet even the bog-standard service aspirations. AnPost makes it complicated by having a third slow-but-insure option "Registered Post 3 - €17.50 5 days Tracking Insurance included to protect your valuable items". There is no option for Full Monty, Bells&Whistles Fast&Insured. Because we'd paid for "Tracking" I had a number (LK887225965IE) and AnPost has a webform for complaints, so I contacted the Customer Service Team CST. And forgot about it. After all, the goods did arrive eventually, they weren't too furry. But it's important to flag when corporate things go wrong; else they may never get better.

Exactly 7 months later, I got the letter, in the Post, shown above. I imagine, that without the Express sticker, we'd have to wait until my birthday or, like,  Christmas. " . . . I must advise that the service used to mail the item is a non-insured product and as such we are not in a position to grant your request for compensation, however you will find enclosed a refund order for 15.00 euros, the amount being paid as a gesture of goodwill as we failed to respond to you within the stated time-frame for dealing with international investigations I am sorry for the loss and inconvenience you have experienced in this matter . . . David Hickey".  Phew! and pause for breath. My PhD mentor chid and chid me again "don't use run on sentences" and I proffer the same advice to Mr Hickey at AnPost CST. 

Also, and for heavens sake, we've all been using the Euro since 1st Jan 2002! When will AnPost CST find the € symbol on their keyboards? [hint: AltGr+4 or ctrl+alt+4] But whatevs - when a written-off compo claim comes through, it's found money and that's me on the batter tonight a handy addition to the Cookies By Post sinking fund.